Cilantro Pesto Recipe

You can add more serrano chiles if you like things hot. A full teaspoon will give you a nice, warm pesto.

Ingredients

2 cups, packed, of cilantro, including stems

1/2 cup blanched almonds

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/2 teaspoon chopped and seeded serrano chile

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Method

1 Toast the almonds: Heat a small skillet on high heat. When the pan is hot, add the blanched almonds in a single layer. Stir with a wooden spoon. When the almonds are fragrant and start to brown, remove them from the pan.

2 In a food processor, pulse the cilantro, almonds, onion, chile, and salt until well blended.

3 Slowly add the oil: With the food processor running, slowly add the olive oil in a steady stream.

Add more oil as needed for your use.

Whatever you don't use, you can freeze. Line a ice cube tray with plastic wrap and fill in the individual cube spaces with the pesto. Freeze and remove from the ice tray, put in a sealed freezer bag for future use.

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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.

This sounds good, and I plan to try it.
I have 2 questions:
1. Can I use almonds that have the brown “skin” on, rather than blanched almonds (no skin)?
2. Where is the Lime/Garlic variation mentioned in a review below?

Absolutely delicious – and easy. Made two very minor changes. Couldn’t bring myself to make pesto with no garlic so I used one medium clove. At the end I mixed in a squeeze of fresh lime. That really brought the whole thing together.

Yum! This was a fast and great way to dress up reheated leftover pork and mashed cauliflower. Would be great on chicken also. I didn’t have a Serrano chili but I used dried ancho chili and Penzey’s Chili 9000 dried blend. Tasted great. I also substituted avocado oil for the olive oil – a neutral flavor that worked well. My last substitution was pre roasted Marcona almonds and skipping the salt. In other words, this recipe is flexible, forgiving, easy, and tasty!

Delicious, though i very strongly suggest a mortar and pestle for any pesto. It creates a much better consistency. I fell in love with the mortar and pestle the very first time i used it. Just do not get a ceramic one. Those are junk and impossible to use.

Love cilantro pesto. Make about a gallon of it each summer and it freezes well in ice cube trays. Pop them into a freezer bag and I am good to go for several months. I saute a couple of cubes in butter and toss with chopped cherry tomatoes and diced cucumbers and serve over pasta. Another way to use it is to saute some fresh shrimp in a couple of cubes and some butter and serve over rice. The possibilities are endless.

Wanted to make a pesto out of cilantro and Googled some recipes. Found yours and since I already subscribe to Simply Recipes decided to go with that one. Made a double batch and served it on Chicken and Jack quesadillas with a dollop of sour cream and diced tomatoes and avocados.

It was wonderful! My son has been eating the leftovers with Juanitas tortilla chips. Next time I am going to try pepitos instead of almonds as my niece suggested. Apparently they made it like that in culinary school one time and she said it was really good!

This is fantastic! I was initially worried because cilantro is such a strong, distinctive flavour and I was worried it wouldn’t go with Pasta at all. But the almond is a wonderful companion to cilantro and I must say the results were simply delicious!

I used a chopstick and spoon trying to stir and mixed the bottom which already blended to those of the top which has not, but unsuccessful. So I end up putting some water, lemon juice and vinegar, and got all blended and mixed. It turn out not as beautiful and green as yours. I will give another try by using a spatula next time. Thank You

Hi, I am trying to blend the cilantro with the rest of the stuff in the food processor. Problem is they are not blending, do I need to add in water or vinegar to the cilantro before processing. If so, how much do I need to put, Thank You.

Use a rubber spatula to push down the cilantro from the sides of the food processor and try again. Then drizzle in the oil while pulsing. That should help. ~Elise

This is a scrumptious recipe – and perfect for vegan and non-vegan alike. I made this with toasted almond slivers and had a hard time not eating the entire recipe before serving it. Yet another keeper recipe from this site!